So the press has become Steve Jobs' willing tool? What else is new?
A unexpected bump in the head landed yours truly in the emergency ward earlier in the year. When they wheeled me into the CAT scan, I handed over my cell phone.
"Oh, we don't need that," the attendant told me. "We only take iPhones."
Wow, I thought. Of all places to land a scoop!
"You mean there's something about the device which interferes with the picture process?"
(Credit:
Apple)
"No," the attendant laughed. "We're just looking for iPhones, not that other stuff."
OK, I thought. Apple had developed a very good product, but this bordered on mania. Truth be told, I also felt slightly guilty as a sometimes accomplice in the hype machine. If we're going to be honest here, it's impossible not to acknowledge that Apple plays the press like a fiddle when it comes to product releases--a willing fiddle, but a fiddle nonetheless.
Fact is that Apple has always been terrific copy--going back to the original partnership of the "Two Steves," through the prolonged corporate melodrama of the mid-1990s and right up to the return of the prodigal co-founder. It mattered little that other companies' products had bigger market share. Reporters just found Apple to have been a more interesting company to write about.
But it's sometimes hard to tell who is driving the train any more. Most of the time, Apple's corporate marketing mavens can count upon reams of free publicity during the run-up to a product debut. A suggestive comment here or a false leak there is all it takes to trigger a media scrum. How crazy has it become? Harvard Business School professor David Yoffie noted last year that the iPhone generated $400 million in free publicity for Apple. When was the last time Sun Microsystems or IBM got that kind of treatment?
A bemused Dave Winer had the right idea as he watched the day's coverage unfold.
It's really upsetting watching all the geek journos scrambling for scraps.Which raises a simple question.
1. Why don't they broadcast Apple keynotes on MSNBC or CNN? All this makeshift jury-rigged michegas. It was cute for a while, but this has been going on for 25 years!
He's got that right. So it was that in the last week nearly every self-respecting tech blog worth its salt wigged out over the approaching debut of the second-generation iPhone. The pack picked up the scent and nobody dared get left behind. You'd think the Jobs keynote at the Worldwide Developers Conference might have been anticlimactic? No way. There were live blogs everywhere--even the normally staid New York Times got into the act.
I guess it's a case of keeping up with the Joneses, though the risk is that we've all inadvertently become fan boys. Let's face the truth: Apple gets a enormous amount of free publicity because we've all bought into the idea that it's special. I suppose kudos are in order to Apple's corporate media planners on a job well done. But will we stop? No way. The clicks are insanely great. And besides, when it comes to Apple, you all can't ever seem to get your fill. Or do I have that wrong? (Before answering, check out this snapshot of Techmeme from earlier in the day.)
All Apple, all the time
(Credit: Techmeme)
Charles Cooper has covered technology and business for more than 25 years. Before joining CNET News, he worked at the Associated Press, Computer & Software News, Computer Shopper, PC Week, and ZDNet. E-mail Charlie. 
I was a Windows (knuckle-dragger) since Windows 1.x (I even have a copy of 3.0 lying around somewhere for nostalgia) and finally got fed up, gave Mac a try and haven't looked back.
Are Macs perfect? Not by a stretch but, they are more stable (and I do monkey with the OS still), less prone to ruin your day.
That's what its about, plain and simple.
Gripe all you want about Apple being the new rock star but lets face it, Windows is a utility product with to many restrictions and is a pain for novices to use.
Apple thinks design through and at least tries to make it simple and fun.
My question to you Coop is, aren't you ready to write about something besides the Windows this and that for a while? Your not a spring chicken anymore and sometimes you just have to get off the beaten path.
Bill and company have been driving the bus for long enough and now it's time for someone else to do it.
No problem, just copy & paste from another of your articles from last month eh?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10787_3-9940589-60.html?tag=bl
Good catch of a writer plagiarizing himself. :-D
Or at least that's what I would be saying if I were like Zanny up there. Knocking a computer by comparing a version of the operating system that's more than a decade old to the current version of a different operating system is just silly.
I think the iPhone hype has nothing to do with Apple, honestly, and everything to do with how miserable the state of the art in cellular telephones is. It's a testament to how poorly designed the user interface on nearly every cell phone is when someone says "I'm going to make a cell phone with a user interface that doesn't suck!" and the whole world faints dead away.
Seriously, most smart phones today are far more powerful than home computers were two decades ago, yet they still have clumsy user interfaces that resemble the days of MS-DOS. Anyone could have invented the iPhone; the hardware is not that revolutionary But nobody did. The industry either can't or won't pay attention to the user's experience. So when someone makes a cell phone that's actually easy and pleasant to use, sure, the world goes into a frenzy of shock.
That's a sad, sad commentary on the state of affairs at Nokia and Sharp and Samsung, all of whom have the resources to have made the iPhone first, none of whom did.
There's the reason there's so much coverage.
Apple always has done a remarkable job with their product design and promotion. They drop subliminal hints that you SHOULD be in the Apple family...and the "mystique" of Apple draws many folks into the fold. And those who don't, or can't, join up tend to be loud in their opposition...it's as if they KNOW they're not benefitting from some universal truth.
The press knows all this...have been watching it for years. Given the choice for coverage of the excellence that is Maserati, why would the press choose to cover the next-in-the-line-of-economical-commute-vehicles-with-built-in-gps?
Maybe someday, I'll be worthy enough to become and Apple-ite. But for now, I got to stay with the money...
And...since the anti-MS comments have already erupted...one thought...those of you staying away from Vista in hopes that "7" will be a better experience...how can that ever be? Don't you think that "7" will incorporate many of the things that turned you off about Vista? Sort of funny. (sorry, I digressed).
When was the last time Sun or IBM released an interesting product with mass market appeal?
I love how these mac-haters like Zanny_Blowzsteve are getting more and more bitter everyday.
- by atm-abq June 10, 2008 2:46 PM PDT
- Back in the 80's and 90's Apple couldn't get any good press no matter how many innovative things they did. The press was only interested when Microsoft copied something from someone else?ofter Apple?and released it as the latest and greatest. Now people and the press are catching on that Apple products are more innovative, better built, and easier to use.
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